Re: POSIX misunderstanding

[Albert Cahalan]

On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 13:55, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Albert Cahalan <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> >> Guideline 3 says "Multi-digit options should not be allowed."
> >> That's an explicit prohibition.
> >
> > I meant, where is --lines allowed,
> 
> It's a different syntax, that is not addressed by the guidelines.

It's no more legal or illegal than "head -42 foo".

> > Perhaps a correction to the standard is in order,
> 
> I've suggested that to others.  See:
> <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2003-11/msg00023.html>.
> However, nobody has bothered, and personally I don't think it's
> important enough to bother.

I'm bothering.

So far, I have the opinion of the committee chair that
the "head -42 foo" syntax may be implemented. The subject
was brought up on the Open Group austin-group-l mailing list,
and nobody objected to the opinion that the traditional
syntax is allowed. The committee chair noted that the wording
was more clear in a previous revision of the standard, and
believes that the meaning still applies.

Now, I hope that is good enough for you. If not, I can
raise a formal defect report. I'd rather not have to
bother the committee with this, given that nobody on the
mailing list objected to either my comments or the opinion
of the committee chair.

So, will you accept the opinion of the committee chair?